Helen (Wojciechowska) Hansen

Photo courtesy of Joshua Brackett's Eagle Scout Project

(August 24, 1913 - December 14, 2000)

The Lusk Herald

December 20, 2000

Helen Hansen

Helen Hansen, age 87, of Lusk passed away on Thursday at the Goshen Care Center in Torrington. A Christian Wake Service was held Sunday evening, 6:00 P.M., at the Cicmanec-Pier Funeral Home in Lusk. A Mass of Christian Burial was held at 10:00 A.M. Monday at St. Leo's Catholic Church in Lusk with Father Pat Shea officiating. Interment will follow in the Lusk Cemetery with military rites.

Helen was born on August 24, 1913, in Buffalo, New York, to Felix and Josephine Wojciechowski. They were from Poland. Her father was a tailor and a pattern maker. When Helen was ten years old they moved to Chicago.

Following high school she went into millinery for five years. She then went into nurses training at the Evanston Hospital School of Nursing just outside of Chicago. When she finished her training in 1942, she joined the Army Nurse Corps for four years. She served as a charge nurse, directing orthopedic and surgical wards, and was stationed in Europe for most of that time in W.W.II. She was discharged from the U.S. Army Nurses Corps with the rank of captain.

Following the war Helen took advantage of the G.I. Bill and got a Bachelor's Degree from Northwestern in Chicago. She took a job at the hospital in Casper.

She married Bob Swartz in 1951 and they later divorced.

In 1954 she was offered a job at the County Hospital in Lusk. She worked there until 1980. Peggy, Ernie's daughter introduced her to Ernie Hansen. They were married in 1960. They spent forty years out in the country among great neighbors.

She was preceded in death by her parents and one sister Jenny.

Helen was a loving and caring wife and mother. She leaves her husband Ernie of Lusk, one son Paul Swartz of Lusk to mourn her loss; two nieces and one nephew.